et il est parti sous la pluie sans une parole
by prouvaires
Summary: -and he left under the rain, without a word.- PercyAudrey. For Ela, never-ending nights with you.


et il est parti sous la pluie, sans une parole, sans me regarder.  
_Et moi j'ai pris ma tête dans ma main, et j'ai pleuré. _  
(and he left under the rain, without a word, without looking at me.  
And I put my head in my hands and cried.)  
~_Déjeuner du matin, Prévert._

**A/N: **For Ela ("Thing Two", never-ending nights with you) because a) she's awesome, b) she helped me with getting my Percy right and c) she wrote me a simply beautiful RolfLuna story you should all go read before you read this because it is _incredible._

--

She watches him from her safe position behind the counter. He's delightfully awkward, pushing his horn-rimmed glasses up his nose as one of the waitresses swans over to take his order, standing disinterestedly as he runs a thin hand through his curly red hair.

She admires his hair very much. She has always hated her own hair – all boring and brown and just long and wavy. She's never been able to get herself bothered enough to get layers put in to make in more interesting, either. The waitress taking his order heads over to the counter, flashing him a generic _I-hate-this-job _smile before slapping the piece of paper down on the counter.

"Coffee and ham sandwich for the guy over there," she calls, and Audrey recognises Annette by the utterly bored tone of voice and too-bright dyed blonde hair. With a nod, Audrey hands the order over to the chef and begins pulling at the coffee machine, working the different levers quickly and efficiently.

The coffee is ready quickly, and with a deep breath she picks it up. All the other waitresses are occupied, and while delivering steaming-hot cups of coffee is not high on her list of favourite activities she has a job to do and she'll be damned if she chickens out of something so _stupid _as delivering a cup of coffee.

"Here you go," she says, and he hurriedly stuffs a moving photo back in his pocket, surprised, as she walks carefully up to him. She chuckles and puts the coffee down, apologising as some slops over the side.

"Gosh, I'm sorry!" she exclaims, reaching for a napkin to mop up the spill.

"That's fine," he says, shifting in his seat uncomfortably as she scrumples up the last of the napkins. She senses his eyes on the side of her face, and glances up to see him looking worried, but he hastily diverts his eyes.

"Don't worry," she assures him with a laugh. "I'm magic too. I know _all _about moving pictures."

He breathes a sigh of relief and stands, holding out his hand. "Percy Weasley," he says, and she takes his hand to shake it. His grip is firm, his palm slightly cold, and he holds onto her hand for perhaps a second longer than normal. "And you are?" he asks, releasing her hand finally and pushing his glasses up again, regarding her. She glances round quickly and then slips into the seat opposite him.

It's against the rules of her job, but she _very much _wants to get to know this Percy better.

"I'm Audrey," she tells him, smiling shyly as he seats himself and picks up the coffee.

He tilts his head to the side briefly, watching her from behind the lenses of his glasses, and something tells her that behind his careful expression his brain is working furiously.

"Ravenclaw," he eventually dredges up, and she smiles in surprise and delight. "You were fourth year when I left."

She recognises him suddenly, and grins. "And you were Head Boy. Your badge said something stupid every day."

His expression darkens suddenly, and she watches the tendons on his hands raise as he clenches them into fists.

"I'm sorry – " she says hastily, but he stops her.

"No, it's not you."

She waits for a minute, thinking that maybe he'll volunteer more information, but instead he just takes a big gulp of his coffee. She tucks her hair behind her ear and goes to rise to her feet.

"Wait," he says quickly, his hand going around hers and sending little goosebumps all up her arms. "Don't go, I'm sorry."

She settles back down and awards him a small smile, linking her fingers together and resting her chin on them. "That's okay. With the war … everyone has something that triggers a memory."

He stares at her, his blue eyes bright with grief.

"For me it's dandelions," she informs him with a laugh. "Silly, I know, but my mother used to moan and complain about them so much, and my father used to mow and mow and mow them, and they'd still come back. It was a standing joke with us. I always sort of admired dandelions, y'know? 'Cause they bounce back no matter how much you try to stop them."

He watches her intently, his coffee forgotten between them, as her eyes stare off into middle distance and he thinks how attractive she is with her pink cheeks and pale skin and such beautiful hair.

"And my mother said that I should be like a dandelion, and always bounce back, even if something terrible happened to any of us. I remembered that after Voldemort killed them both."

He takes her hand again and squeezes gently, if awkwardly. (Because if there's one thing Percy Weasley understands, it's losing family.)

"I'm sorry," he says sincerely, and she blinks herself back to the present and turns her pretty green eyes on him and smiles.

"Don't be. It's not your fault."

There is a brief, uncomfortable silence, and then she links her hands together, one on top of the other, in front of her and makes little circles with her thumbs, confusing him.

"What is that?" he asks, staring in bewilderment at her hands. She laughs in delight.

"The turtle of awkwardness," she explains like that should solve all his questions. When he just sends her a perplexed look, she grins. "It's a thing we used to do at my muggle school when I was little. It's an icebreaker."

He copies the gesture, and can't help the childish little shoot of amusement that runs through him.

A ham sandwich suddenly descends between them and makes them jump.

"Audrey, you know you're not paid to sit nattering to customers," a voice intones monotonously, and Audrey glances up at Annette and nods.

"I know."

Annette leaves and Audrey rises from her chair, pushing her hair back behind her ear again.

"Wait," Percy says, and hurriedly scrawls something down on a piece of parchment. He hands it over to her and she reads the address written on it. "Seven thirty on Friday?" he asks hopefully, looking self-conscious, and she beams.

Something inside his chest thumps harder and harder as her face lights up and he thinks that maybe he's never seen any girl so beautiful as her.

"I'll look forward to it," she promises, and then heads back behind the protection of the counter, leaning against it and sighing, re-reading the piece of parchment with trembling fingers. Something about him and his awkwardness and amazing hair and sadness draws her to him and she cannot help bouncing inwardly with anticipation for Friday.

--

And it comes around and is even better than she could have ever dreamed. She arrives and it is a little muggle restaurant with tables under the stars, and he looks at her in a way that makes her feel simply _beautiful_.

He greets her with a bumbling kiss on the cheek, taking her hand to lead her inside, and she folds her other hand into the skirt of the green dress she's wearing because, in all honesty, she's absolutely terrified of the way she feels about him.

They talk pleasantly and he doesn't even try anything and he returns her home at the end of the evening punctually and she now knows that he has four brothers and a sister and that he is completely ashamed of the way he behaved during the war and that he loves peanut butter and hates mess and enjoys old black and white muggle films.

And she's told him that she is afraid of lifts and terrible at sports and loves walks and thunder storms and has always wanted brothers and sisters.

And she stands on her doorstep and watches him apparate away, blowing a kiss, a promise for next Tuesday held close to her heart.

--

And she falls further and further the more time she spends with him, and he might have exactly twenty-seven flaws but they are what make him _interesting _and _different _and, in truth, she has found herself in love with this darling, socially-inept, red-headed man and she can't fathom how or why but she _is_, and that's all that matters.

But because of the way he is he wants to do everything _right _and so he doesn't even kiss her until their third date and he brings her to meet his family only after their ninth date.

She stands in the middle of the crowded kitchen, feeling somewhat overrun, as several toddlers run around her feet and adults all talk loudly and boisterously but when he leans close and asks if she wants to leave she shakes her head firmly.

"No. Definitely not."

Because, the thing is, she's always, _always _wanted a family like this – and the more time she spends with this huge family the less jagged the rim of the hole where her parents should be grows.

She leans on him contentedly as they walk outside, and he kisses her under the brightbright stars and she rests her palm over his heart and smiles up at him, her eyes darkened by the night and her emotions.

And she tells him "I love you," and he reacts like this is the best and most unbelievable moment of his whole life. He tells her the same, right away, his glasses slipping down his nose in his excitement, and she laughs as he spins her round and round and they apparate back to his apartment and she spends the night for the first time and it is like all her dreams coalesced into one perfect reality.

--

Three or four days later she is standing in her kitchen, looking out over the rainy streets of the city far below, and the door opens and shuts behind her.

"Hi," she says warmly, not turning around, and she smiles and relaxes as arms slip around her waist.

"Hey babe," he replies, and she screams and whirls because this, this is _not _Percy and, god, she wasn't expecting _him _of all people.

"Cormac!" she gasps, and the blonde-haired man smirks and just grips her more tightly.

"I knew you missed me, baby. Come on, let's go get a drink."

"No!" she squeals, because Percy will be here _any moment _and Cormac absolutely _cannot _stay. "Cormac, go away. I have a boyfriend now."

The man's expression darkens, his handsome face distorted, and he releases her waist only to grip her wrist even tighter.

"You work fast," he reprimands her as she struggles, his hand sliding into her hair despite her protests. "We only just break up a while ago."

"Cormac, we went on _one _date," she reminds him furiously. "We were never even going out – you took me to a quidditch match and spent the entire match telling me about how you went on a date with Hermione Weasley while we were still at school."

He grins and his gaze distances itself. "I was so close to getting into her pants," he informs her proudly (and mistakenly), and she finally manages to distangle herself and is reaching for her wand, and her fingers are _millimetres _away when he suddenly uses his whole body weight to pin her against the wall, his lips descending on hers wildly, and she screams and fights him and bites down on his lip.

He staggers away, gasping, his hand on his bleeding mouth, and then with a growl he pins her again and she tries the same thing, but it's not working, and her eyes are wide and bright with fear so she sees Percy open the door, holding his big black umbrella, and his eyes land on them immediately.

She screams soundlessly against Cormac, who is so far gone he doesn't even notice, and pushes him away ever harder to no avail. Percy doesn't say a word as his face shows all the internal destruction, just turns away and trudges back out down the hallway, head hanging desolately, umbrella limp in his hands.

Then finally, _finally_, her fingers close around her wand and she hexes Cormac into the next room, hearing the satisfying _crash _as he busts the wardrobe with his stupid fat head, and she sprints out of the door and apparates herself down the stairs of the apartment building to find Percy.

"Percy, please!" she yells into the pouring rain, squinting around desperately, hearing traffic blaring past but the rain is so thick she can't even see the cars on the road ten metres away. "_Percy_!" she screams again, her hair and clothes completely plastered to her body, blinking and gasping as the rain tries to drown her, her tears mingling undetected with the rain as she presses her face into her hands in despair.

And then she catches sight of a black umbrella held above red hair appearing from the apartment building, and she runs right at him. He makes an "oof" noise as she crashes into him, but manages to keep his balance.

The umbrella isn't so lucky, and it goes flying and is crushed by his feet as he staggers backwards.

"Percy, please, it isn't what you think!" she informs him, shouting to be heard above the deluge.

"Then what is it?" he asks, pushing his glasses up his nose with shaking fingers. "Because I don't see how it could be anything else."

"It was Cormac McLaggen," she explains, her hands desperately running over his cheeks and into his hair, her eyes begging him to understand. "I went out with him once six months ago and he was under the impression that we were going out and we _weren't_, I _swear, _but when I told him that he just kissed me and I couldn't get him off!"

He looks down at her, with her hair flat with rain against her scalp and her prettypretty green eyes so wide and upset and honest and he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a little bunch of flowers for her.

"I brought these for you," he tells her quietly, _ohso_dejectedly, and offers them up. She loops one arm around his neck because she _is not _letting him go, and takes them tenderly with the other.

The yellow dandelions glow brightly amongst the bluebells and sprigs of green and white and purple and she's crying even harder because she looks up into his bright eyes and sees the pain she's caused.

"They're beautiful," she says reverently, and then she remembers that conversation about dandelions all that time ago and a fresh wave of tears is rolling down her cheeks, although he can't see it, because he _remembered _and she loves him so, so much.

"I'm so sorry," she whispers, the rain almost drowning her out. "I love you."

Then she kisses him and he kisses her back, his glasses steaming up as he lifts her legs up around his waist, and she stops crying and starts laughing with joy as they stagger back into the building and into the lift, still joined together like that.

"Oh, Merlin, I'm sorry," he apologises furiously as the doors swing shut. She gulps as the familiar terror rises up in her as the stomach-sinking sensation begins, but then she looks at him and just smiles and kisses him again. Their damp clothes are pressed against them uncomfortably but they don't even _care._

"It's okay," she says. "I feel safe with you."

And he blushes handsomely, taking his glasses off briefly to clean the mist off them, and she laughs and joins her lips to his again, his hands in her hair as he peppers her face with kisses, his fingers tracing crop circles on her skull.

--

**A/N: **I wasn't sure how to end it, so I figured I'd cut my losses and not ramble on any longer.

Ela, I hope you liked it!

Please don't favourite without reviewing, thanks.


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